The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, delivered this Tuesday a first batch of 150 buses purchased in Russia, which will serve to improve collective urban transport in the Central American country.
Of the 150 units, 60 will be distributed in the department of León and 30 in Chinandega, both provinces located in northwestern Nicaragua, said the president during the delivery ceremony of the buses, held on Avenida de Bolívar to Chávez, in Managua.
Another 20 transport units will be sent to the municipality of Tipitapa, neighboring Managua, and 10 each to the departments of Estelí and Matagalpa, both in northern Nicaragua, and 10 in Masaya.
Another five buses will go to the province of Juigalpa (center) and the other five to the city of Jinotepe (Pacific). The president explained that these 150 units will be used for collective transportation in Nicaragua.
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Ortega announced that between next March and April, Nicaragua will receive a second fleet of 200 new buses from Russia. Nicaragua had already reported the purchase of 300 Russian buses for collective urban transport in the country, after having acquired a fleet of 1,100 since Ortega returned to power in 2007.
The Nicaraguan authorities have not offered details on the cost of the transport units, nor the form of payment offered to the carriers.
Russia is an old ally of Nicaragua that during the first Sandinista government (1979-1990) provided Soviet weapons to the Nicaraguan Armed Forces.
Nicaragua is one of the few countries, along with Venezuela and the small island states of Nauru and Tuvalu, that have joined Russia in recognizing the independence of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and that has received senior Russian officials since that country invaded Ukraine.
In addition, at the end of 2020 Nicaragua established a consulate in Crimea, a Ukrainian territory annexed to Russia, which led to the rejection of Ukraine.
